Why are you pursuing Certification?

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I do them to keep my skills and knowledge upto date. Some employers will only employ certified staff (According to one recuriter) Anyway isn't that all part of working in IT. You should be doing a course/exam at least every 6 months

 

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For me it's a few things.

Getting qualifications has been part of enabling me to get to Third Line Support in a relatively quick amount of time. The main part has been my own aptitude and attitude.

It gives me an understanding of how things work, but as Zeb said so wonderfully, there is a huge amount of stuff that you learn which is never used and a huge amount of stuff that you don't use that it used.

An example of this is Exchange 2003, I don't recall it covering Intelligent Message Filtering, but in the real world, we use this alot with clients who are to cheap to route via a proper filtering system.

I obtain certificates to learn new technologies before being exposed to them. I know this is contrary to popular belief, but lets put it this way, work won't let me on Cisco stuff until I have passed the CCENT and CCNA. As they want to feel confident that if they let me loose on a router, I actually now something about it.

They don't have time to train me on the job, as we are so busy, so this fit works for them and also me.

 

I guess with me it's a case of continuing professional development - but as a way of providing some kind of structure to that development.

Rather than just say 'I'll learn some stuff about IT', certification gives you the chance to narrow that down to the exam curriculum and break off bite sized chunks - and have something to show for it afterwards.

I rate the OU very highly, but it takes three years or so to get a diploma, working at their pace. I just wanted something that I could be a bit more flexible with.

When you get your first cert - especially if you've been out of education for a while - you get a real buzz and end up in danger of becoming a bit of a cert collector. I went through that stage for a few years and then the novelty wore off. I'm concentrating on other stuff now, but may get back into it in the future.

 

Actually, that's not contrary to popular belief or the prevailing advice around here. You actually have an employer that wants to give you a shot at administering Cisco routers. Thus, you've done things in the RIGHT order. Most people think that if they get the CCNA, someone will automagically offer them an opportunity to administer Cisco routers. But that's not how it works. Once you've been asked to get it by an employer, by all means, get it!!

 

Except of course where Test is King...